Rewritten
by NewDrWhoFan
Summary: People say there was this girl, and she sat with Pete while he was dying, and she held his hand. After the events of S1's "Father's Day", Rose doesn't remember a thing about the Reapers. The Doctor remembers, but can he set her straight?
1. Tea Time

_Here's another short story I had to write so that I could concentrate on updating the others. It's based on a theory that I recently learned was given additional credence by Eleven in Series 5..._

_I'm dedicating it to **Jessa L'Rynn**, whose wonderful Nine/Rose stories have been teasing and taunting me into finally getting up the nerve to write something for Nine. Maybe this doesn't really count, considering the massive amounts of dialogue, but it's a start!_

_This chapter takes place just after "Father's Day"._

_Disclaimer: Surprise, surprise, I don't own Doctor Who. Nor do I get anything from writing these stories-except wonderful, constructive reviews! Wink, wink; nudge, nudge ;)_

_As yet un-beta'd._

* * *

**Rewritten**

Chapter 1 - Tea Time

"But why'd he do it?" Rose asked.

The Doctor looked across the table at her. She was warming her hands around a mug of tea, still too distracted to even take a sip. Her eyes were red and puffy, although she had stopped shedding tears by the time they came into the TARDIS' kitchen.

He still didn't know what to say. Her Dad had worked it all out on his own, proven himself every bit the genius Rose believed him to be, and now she was asking why he'd stepped out into the street without looking both ways. Peter Alan Tyler had just saved the world - no, reality - and his daughter didn't remember any of it. She'd held his hand as he'd died, and as far as she knew that's the way her Mum had always told the story: Pete ran out of the church, got hit by a car, and died in the street with some mysterious lady holding his hand before anyone else could get to him.

Rose probably thought she'd asked him to take her back so she could thank the mystery lady or something.

She'd have no memory of hiding when Pete got hit the first time, she wouldn't remember the Doctor giving in and taking her back again, let alone running out into the street and saving her Dad's life.

No taking back his TARDIS key, no Reapers, no getting to know her Dad, nothing.

He'd called her a stupid ape, and he'd regretted it, but now he couldn't even apologize.

He'd given his life to prolong hers just a bit, hadn't regretted it, but now he couldn't even tell her that.

It had all been his fault, from the beginning. She'd told him she meant to change history, to be there to hold her Dad's hand when he'd had no one. But the Doctor just had to prove he could do anything...

She sniffed, and looked at him expectantly.

He gave her the only answer he could think to give. "Drink yer tea."

* * *

_To be continued, by popular demand._

_(Explanation and possible Series 5 spoiler: At the end of "Cold Blood", Eleven is distinguishing between a time-traveler's ability to remember altered events. "They weren't part of your world. This is different... this is your own history changing." And I'm rather proud to say that I wrote this story before ever having even heard of Matt Smith.)_


	2. Never Give Up

_This chapter's dedicated to adlerj for prompting an explanation via review. It takes place during "The Parting of the Ways", onboard the TARDIS after Mickey's chain snapped._

_As yet un-beta'd._

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Chapter 2 - Never Give Up

"It was never gonna work, sweetheart," Jackie consoled. Rose knew she was trying to help, but every fiber of her being rebelled against it. "And the Doctor knew that," her Mum went on. "He just wanted you to be safe."

"I can't give up," Rose told her.

"Lock the door," Jackie said, repeating the Doctor's instructions. "Walk away."

Rose wasn't sure what it was that caused the anger to flare up inside of her, but just as she rebelled against the Doctor's Emergency Program, she had to fight her Mum, too. "Dad wouldn't give up," she told her.

"Well, he's not here, is he?" Jackie asked, but Rose could see her simple words had had the expected effect.

She wasn't sure if she knew where she was going with this, or if she was just devastated enough to strike out, but something in her, more than anger, made her try to shock and prod and hurt. She felt almost like she was back on the TARDIS, blindly pushing buttons on the console as the Doctor's hologram told her she was being sent home.

"And even if he was," Jackie continued, "he'd say the same."

Lock the door. Walk away. Rose honestly didn't know her father. Yes, she'd met him, seen glimpses of his life, but he hadn't even had any dying words for her. She only really knew him from Jackie's stories, but still. Even embellished by fond memories, the unstoppable dreamer that was Pete Tyler would never have said walk away. "No, he wouldn't," Rose said, full of conviction.

Why she was harping on her Dad, she still didn't know. Maybe because it was the only topic Rose knew of as close to Jackie's heart as the Doctor was to her own.

"He'd tell me to try anything," Rose insisted, remembering the crazy schemes Jackie used to talk about. "If I could save the Doctor's life... try anything."

She could tell Jackie wanted to let the subject drop. "Well, we're never gonna know," she said.

"Well, I know," Rose told her, seeing her opening, finally getting a clearer picture of her target in mind. "'Cause I met him. I met Dad."

Her Mum looked stunned. "Don't be ridiculous," Jackie said, quietly.

Bring it back to the Doctor, Rose thought. Tie them together. As much as Jackie would have tried to save Pete, she wants to save her Doctor.

She sat up fully, refusing to back down, despite the hurt she would cause.

"The Doctor took me back in time, and I met Dad." There it was.

"Don't say that." Her Mum was shocked, maybe even disgusted at what she thought was a lie, but Rose could see some curiosity mixed with the incredulity.

Fine. Proof. Brace yourself... "Remember when Dad died?" Rose asked, the memory so painfully fresh in her own mind. "There was someone with him?" Rose let herself revel in the feeling, as much as it hurt, hoping to give her Mum just a taste of how real what she was telling her truly was. "A girl," Rose insisted, but Jackie made no reply. "A blonde girl," Rose went on. "She held his hand."

She could see her Mum remembering, disbelieving but remembering.

"You saw her from a distance, Mum! You _saw_ her!" No response. "Think about it!" Rose demanded. "That was me! You saw me -"

"Stop it," Jackie cut her off, abruptly.

Rose wasn't having it. She had to make her see, pain didn't matter, she had to know. "That's how good the Doctor is -"

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Jackie shouted. Rose saw the tears, mirroring her own, pouring down her Mum's face before she turned and fled the TARDIS.

* * *

_And, yes, to be continued._


	3. The Truth Will Out

_Post "New Earth", but only just._

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**Chapter 3 - The Truth Will Out**

The Doctor was feeling good.

He had already saved earth and New Earth in the space of only a few days.

He was getting the hang of his newest regeneration, and finding he liked this one quite well. It seemed Rose did, too.

Cassandra as well, but he wasn't about to dwell on that. He was, in fact, trying very hard to figure out a way to remember Rose's kiss _without_ thinking about who happened to have been possessing her at the time.

She'd been possessed the last time he'd kissed her, too. A very unfortunate habit she seemed to be developing -

When he heard Rose's scream, he was out of the TARDIS' console room and through her bedroom door before she'd finished the word, "Doctor!"

"Rose?" he asked, stepping into the darkened room.

"Cold," she murmured. To his relief, she appeared to only be dreaming, although it was obviously a nightmare. "It's cold," she repeated, still asleep.

The Doctor crept closer to feel her forehead. She wasn't cold, nor was she feverish. She was a bit warm, but her thrashing about was enough to explain the temperature. He brought his hands up to frame her face as he sat beside her on the bed. "It's me, Rose," he spoke softly. "It's just a dream, wake up."

"He's dead," she choked out, eyes screwed tightly shut as she shook her head away from his gentle grip. "My fault... whole world..."

"Rose," the Doctor spoke more insistently, gripping her shoulders.

Her eyes opened with a sob, and she looked around the room, disoriented for a moment. When she finally saw him, she gripped the sleeves of his suit jacket tightly. "D-Doctor?" she asked.

"I'm right here," he assured her.

She pulled herself up and latched tightly onto him in a crushing hug.

"Nightmare?" he asked, rubbing soothing circles on her back, not unlike the way she had done on the couple of occasions she had caught him sleeping... and dreaming.

She nodded wetly into the crook of his neck.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked.

She shook her head, no.

"Sure?" he asked, and she sighed against him. She had never let him get away with not talking about his nightmares; a technique he suspected her mother had engrained in her.

He couldn't blame her. It worked.

After a few moments, Rose extricated herself from their embrace, just enough to pull an arm free and wipe at her eyes and cheeks. "Sorry," she said, sniffling.

The Doctor shook his head, his hands now on her arms. "Don't be. Just tell me what's wrong."

She closed her eyes, composing herself. After a couple of deep breaths, she spoke. "It's all weird," she began, shaking her head as she looked at him. "It's as weird as a nightmare, but it felt so real."

The Doctor nodded for her to go on, but he was on alert. It would be easy to say "it's only a dream," but there were any number of threats that could work within - or disguise themselves as - dreams.

"I think," Rose continued, "I was thinkin' 'bout my Dad, 'cause of some stuff Mum an' I were talkin' about before I came back."

"You mean," he asked," before you opened the Heart of the TARDIS and miraculously navigated your way back to the Gamestation to wipe out the Daleks and save my life?"

She sniffed again, and looked over at the box of tissues on her bedside table. The Doctor grabbed one, and handed it to her. "Thanks," she said, taking the tissue and wiping her nose. "Yeah, then," she said, sheepishly. "But, I was thinkin' 'bout bein' there when Dad was hit, and lookin' for the lady that stayed with him an' all, and how I realized it was me," another sniff. "Then it was like everythin' sorta shifted." She looked up at the Doctor. "I was still at the church, but we were all inside, and Dad was alive, and there were these -" she swallowed, "these Reapers, I thought they were called, these big, flying bat things." She looked hard at the Doctor, fresh tears in her eyes. "They killed you, and I knew, I just knew it was all my fault."

As her tears began to fall again, the Doctor pulled her tight to his chest. She wrapped her arms around him, and he felt her shaking, hiccoughing softly. Guilt rose inside him as he held her. He had thought he understood her tears when she began recounting the incident with her father. But then, to discover that it was his, the Doctor's fate that had so disturbed her...

He was used to rewritten memories like this. It came with being a Time Lord. He had to be aware of altered realities so as to avoid, well, exactly the sort of paradox he'd ended up causing. But Rose, she shouldn't know. She hadn't known, back when it first happened, he knew that. This had to be another effect of holding the Vortex. Just like her memories of the Gamestation had come back in a dream, albeit piecemeal...

She pulled back after a few minutes, wiping at her eyes again. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I know it's just a dream, but..." she trailed off as she looked at him, and the Doctor knew she could read the truth in his eyes. "It's real," she whispered.

He nodded.

"I killed you," she said, looking at him in horror. "_Again_."

The Doctor shook his head urgently. "No, Rose," he said. "We already covered this, remember? What happened on the Gamestation was _my choice_. And the Reapers were my fault, not yours." He held her hands to keep her from moving away from him.

"But how?" Rose asked. "How is it real? And what are those things, the Reapers?"

The Doctor had known this would come back to haunt him. Somehow, against all rationality, he had known.

He couldn't bring himself to shatter her precious little reality the last time she had asked about her Dad, but now that it had shattered on its own, it was up to him to help her pick up the pieces.

"Come on," he said, sliding off of her bed and pulling her gently to her feet. "I'll make the tea."

* * *

_The end._


End file.
